"And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God." Zach 13:9How beautiful are those whose trust in a sovereign God surpass and outweigh life's trials, pain and suffering. My prayer is that the Lord give me joy in every difficult situation that He chooses to bring to my life knowing that my Redeemer is refining me, removing all dross, so that I may reflect the perfect image of Christ.
Joni Erickson Tada wrote the following a couple of months back:
I ran into some people over the weekend who are still stymied as to why a good God would allow cancer on top of my chronic pain and quadriplegia. But it's no mystery to me. “The cross God sends is a cross that He understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, and weighed with His own hands to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for the person to whom He has given it,” as one writer put it. The Bible puts it this way: “All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering” (II Thessalonians 1:5). When it comes to the cross you daily bear, join me in agreeing that God's judgment is right. The cross you shoulder is not one inch too large nor one ounce too heavy, for the Lord especially hand-tailored it so that Christ's kingdom might be advanced through you. That alone is the highest of honors.
